In order to locate job site features, such as excavation sites, designers generally create job site plans from a survey of the job site. At the job site, the job site plan, or excavation plan, is used by a contractor or excavator operator to determine the actual ground location at which to dig. Thus, the application of the excavation plan to the ground at the job site is subjected to human error. The operator and/or contractor can not only misinterpret the ground location at which to dig, but may also be unaware of job site feature characteristics, such as buried utilities.
With the advent of accurate global positioning systems and local positioning systems, such as three-dimensional laser reference systems, job sites can now be surveyed and planned electronically. Based on an electronic survey of a job site, designers can create, with specialized software, an electronic excavation plan for the job site. The excavation plan can be downloaded onto an electronic control module within the excavator in order for the operator, while at the job site, to view the electronic excavation plan on an operator display. Although the excavation plan may provide some aid to the excavator operator during excavation, the excavation plan is insufficiently detailed by which to dig. Because the display of the excavation plan is limited to the size of the operator display, some necessary details of the plan may be difficult to view and interpret. Moreover, even if the operator display is sufficiently sized so the operator can dig from the excavation plan, the translation of the plan to the ground is still subjected to human error.
The present disclosure is directed at overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.